


Epoch

by TheAmazingJAJ



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Hunger Games, Romance, Soulmates, The Arena
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-07-28 03:11:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16233011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAmazingJAJ/pseuds/TheAmazingJAJ
Summary: "Love has no distance, it hath no continent, its eyes are for the stars." Soulmates AU in which Peeta grew up in Two and both volunteer for the 74th Hunger Games.





	1. Chapter 1

I never expected that I'd be sitting in one of these uncomfortable metal chairs that just  _scream_  I'm in trouble outside of the Headmaster's office today.

Then again, I never expected myself to become a career-in-training either.

The Academy is officially named "The Academy for Peacekeepers in Training", but all of those in the know realize easily that this isn't just to create peacekeepers to patrol the districts of Panem, but instead to produce volunteers for the Hunger Games, all experienced enough to have a fighting chance at winning the Games themselves. Us cadets call our home 'Second Chance', our lighthearted way at reminding us all that the reason most of us are here is that our parents couldn't afford to raise so many kids or because some were stuck in the streets of broken glass before we got here. Some of my friends still have deep scars on their torsoes from unsatisfied customers in the seedier parts of Two.

I myself shouldn't even be here. I'm the son of a baker, a man with flour on his hands and three strong sons to help him flip the dough and rake in the sesterces. At least, it used to be three. I wrestled as an extra-curricular sport for school, and accidentally broke the neck of the son of the mayor at the age of eleven in a match. Before the mayor could do anything about it, Mother frantically sent me to Second Chance and pleaded for me to be accepted. I still remember sitting in one of these chairs, kicking my legs against the floor as I listened to my mother scream with Headmaster Stamos about how I still deserved to join the Academy, even though I was a year older than the maximum age.

I don't kick my legs this time around. We're supposed to be model citizens of Panem, with perfect manners and respect for our elders. Peacekeepers in training aren't allowed to even move their leg when they're sitting in a chair.

Brutus Tomasini walks past me and gives a low whistle of sympathy, showing his fist to me in support before continuing to move through the halls. Other students walk quickly past the office and nod curtly to me, trying to get to their classes without being late themselves. Tardiness will only earn them a spot next to me.

I observe another victor walking toward me, their cane tapping steadily on the floor as they continue towards me. Natalia Haines sits down next to me, her green eyes sparkling in amusement as she waits with me for Headmaster Stamos to let me in. "What are you in for, kid?"

"Refusing to deliver a final blow." I turn my head away, trying to stop my blushing-red cheeks from being seen by the old victor. But Natalia chuckles in amusement before patting me on the head, her wrinkled skin smoothing and brightening as she smiles.

"You'll get the hang of it, kid. But keep your head about you in there. Can't have my little warrior get cut this year!" She laughs and stands back up, grabbing her cane as her short, dark grey hair twirls around her head. "You'll be fine, Peeta. I made it through, after all."

I wave goodbye to District Two's first career and sit patiently in my chair, waiting for the door to be opened. Natalia's right, I've got to get the hang of finishing the fight. After all, she's the reason I'm in the academy and not in front of the firing squad. She told Headmaster Stamos that she saw a fire in me that could be cultivated into the perfect warrior. No one in this school questions Natalia. No one.

The door finally opens and a dejected cadet trudges out, her hands in her pockets and what looks to me like a tear on her cheek. If I questioned it, I'd probably get my face slapped by the girl and spat on. We don't show emotion around here. Never.

I walk into the room, careful to keep my shoulders straight and my head held high as I walk towards Headmaster Stamos' desk. "I'm here, sir."

Headmaster Stamos pushes his dark glasses up the bridge of his nose and reaches a hand out for me to grab, waiting for me to shake it. I do firmly, making sure that he can understand that I'm serious about this. He can't see my face, after all. The man's been blind since his Games.

"Peeta Mellark, if I'm correct by your grip." The man sits back down in his chair and stares towards me, his eyes hidden by the dark glasses. "Your instructors have reported to me that you refused to finish a fight against… a boy by the name of Cato Tomson, if they have told me correctly. You know the values of this school, Peeta."

"Honour, Strength, and Respect," I recite mechanically, four years of our values being drilled into my brain paying off.

"Mercy is not on that list, Peeta Mellark." Headmaster Stamos leans back and touches his messy hair, trying to smooth it into something respectable. "You think that you should allow your fellow cadets to retain their honour, but that just takes from your strength. Perhaps you need to remind yourself once more about what those values truly mean."

I blush again and rub my face in nervousness, watching the wall instead of Headmaster Stamos' eyes. But the headmaster continues, not allowing me to respond. "But that's not the reason that you're here, Peeta Mellark."

I jerk my head up in surprise, almost falling out of my chair as I do so. I thankfully remain in the chair without making a sound, and I wait for Headmaster Stamos to finish. "Your father was here yesterday. He has requested to withdraw you from the school, no bows attached. If you  _do_  leave, you will still remain pardoned of your former crimes. It's up to you."

"Are you kidding?" I blurt out, covering my mouth as soon as I say so. I shouldn't offend Headmaster Stamos. But the thought of going back home, to a place of little regulations and no eyes on my back except when I bake the cakes is so surprising that I couldn't hold back my astonishment. "Sorry for interrupting, sir."

"No offence was taken, Mellark. That would surprise me as well if I had been offered that. But I was in the days where trainees lived at home and siblings trained together..." Headmaster Stamos trails off before regaining his train of thought, looking back up in my direction. "But before you decide, I want you to know that staying here will be hard work. You'll be subject to the same conditions as you have been for the last few years, and no one will be any less lenient on you. You'll go through hell, Mellark."

I nod, remembering the history class that I'm missing right now. We're supposed to take the course to remind ourselves why we train like this, how the Games teach us to be prepared for anything possible and how training so vigorously will make us the ideal volunteer - well, peacekeeper to anyone from the Capitol. Headmaster Stamos waits for me to ponder over the decision, rubbing his grey beard and looking where he thinks my eyes are. "But if you stay, you will have the chance to become one of District Two's victors. If not, at least a peacekeeper."

I nod, reminding myself of the poverty that my family is in. We could only eat the stale loaves back home, everything of value had to be saved for the customer, not the family. I had learned that the hard way when I was little, under the sting of my mother's blow.

"But… but this is my home!" I find myself saying, looking into the face of District Two's third victor. "I can't imagine leaving, sir."

"Then it's decided. I'll tell your father that I can't spare losing one of my cadets and that I declined this chance for you." I almost find myself in tears at the statement, blinking back the emotion vigorously. As wrong as it seems, I feel safe now that my father won't know that I declined the chance to go back home.

"Thank you, sir. I'll head back to class now." I rise from my chair and walk out, pausing when Headmaster Stamos speaks again.

"Keep going, Mellark. I don't want to cut you at the end of the week." I nod and walk out, hurrying towards my classroom. I can't plague myself at the thought of home, burying my head in history lessons and long runs along the mountains of Two during the week instead. I will not remind myself of what I pushed away in Headmaster Stamos' office.

And when Friday comes, I am not cut.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking a while, but I hope you're okay with this one! I'm enjoying writing Peeta :D

I stand at the edge of the mountain and look down towards the bottom of the cliff, shivering in the cold of the early morning. Mist is still rolling down from the mountains onto the picturesque town below us cadets, wrapping the valley in a blanket of fog. It's beautiful, and I stand there for a few seconds too long to watch the mist turn all sorts of beautiful colours under the light of the sun overhead.

"Mellark!" I jump at the shout of Instructor Harris, who marches towards me with dark sunglasses and a frown on his face. "Are you paying attention to what I've been saying, or have you been watching the fog like Bishop over there?"

Lara Bishop blushes from where she's been placed by Harris for whispering to another cadet and I shake my head nervously, saluting the instructor and shouting out what he's been informing us cadets of during the last five minutes. "We'll be heading down the mountain in pairs, and we're all expected to reach the bottom in time for lunch. Those who don't make it down in time will be expected to go without, Instructor."

"You  _haven't_ been paying attention after all, Mellark," Harris sneers with a twisted smile, standing right in front of my face and drowning me in the pungent smell of his body odour and the cologne that he must spray on every morning - much too strong if you ask me. "You forgot that the last ten pairs back will be losing dinner as well, and will be taking an extra chore duty during the week. That should be enough to set them back for a few weeks. The first few groups will also get extra consideration by the instructors and victors for those lucky twenty-four slots in the trials, so don't just jog your way down. You all still remember my motto, or have you been daydreaming like Cadets Mellark and Bishop?"

"Fight for your district, your nation, and most of all, yourself!" we all shout into the mist. Harris nods curtly and turning around to the edge of the cliff.

"Good. Now, to mix things up, we'll be drawing the pairs from a lottery I conducted the night before." An eruption of protest comes from the other side of the cadets, who had arranged themselves into their friend groups for the climb down, but Harris only laughs and pulls out his clipboard. "I do hope that we all have our compasses. Those who don't have them will get a customary shaming from me when I come around to check on your pair, plus a five-minute penalty at the start of your little jog. Now, pair one: Anton and Jacobs! Pair two: Seymour and Calladin! Pair three..."

I am paired with a girl named Clove, who sports dark eyes and a wicked smile. She produces a compass when I walk over to her and I show her mine, patting her on the back and standing back in line next to her. "We'll do well," she whispers, looking down towards the bottom of the mountain. "I know for a fact that you're in better shape than most of the cadets in this class."

I stare at her in confusion, wondering how she knows that I do an extra mile every morning before dawn, as well as disrupt my roommates' sleep by doing pushups and situps when I can't sleep. She responds before I have the chance to ask, looking straight ahead to Harris. "I watch everyone, yourself included. Don't be so surprised."

I accept her cryptic response and wait for Harris to finish naming the pairs, holding up my compass once more as he comes to inspect our compasses. He nods briskly at mine and stares sternly at Clove, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Do well, Sharpe. I didn't promote you up a year for nothing."

Clove nods with confidence and Harris moves on, inspecting all of the pairs and moving the three groups who had forgotten compasses next to his truck. He walks back to the cadets and yells out his final commands, causing me to flinch from the force of his words. "Don't screw it all up and sabotage your time in the academy. I know that most of you still have to finish up your community hours, and extra chores won't help with that."

I nod along with the rest of the group and Harris gives a crooked smile, pulling out a whistle from his undershirt. "When I blow this, you have permission to get back in any way you can - except by sabotaging other groups. We've got mics planted onto all of you for a reason, so don't pull any fast ones. I'll have you kicked back into the streets of glass faster than you can call for your mamas if you try to kill off any pairs."

I laugh at his comments and prepare to sprint with Clove, who's already leaning into a running position as Harris enters his vehicle. He turns the key and the huge truck that we were all carried up here with rumbles to life, spurting out a dark cloud of smoke as Harris yells over the noise of the engine. "Only run when you hear my whistle!"

He blows the whistle just before he presses the gas, racing down the hillside and back towards the academy that's nestled at the bottom of the mountain. Some teens try to grab onto the back of the truck but miss and stumble into the stones of the mountain, causing Clove and I to leap over them in our attempt to get to the front. The lithe girl is much faster than I thought, racing through the pack and towards the front of the cadets. "Hurry up, Mellark!"

I nod and move faster, pushing against a breathless boy with huge arms to catch up to my partner. She grins through her heavy breathing as we angle towards the side of the hillside, starting to get off of the road and into the forest and scrubs of the mountains. "Good to see you. Now, let's keep sprinting for another - another few minutes before we slow down. Every second we put ourselves ahead of the rest of the cadets, the more seconds we have to rest when we need it."

We keep running, just a few feet behind a tall boy and taller girl who head the group. But they're too fast for both of us and disappear into the forests of the top of the mountain, leaving Clove and I alone. But instead of taking the easy root throughout the heavy forest, Clove points towards a different direction with her compass. "I already figured out the direction of the academy. If we go south-west through here instead of just south, we'll be at the gates when we get off of this mountain instead of the road that leads to the academy."

I grin and run ahead, watching out for anything the instructors may have planted in the forests. I shouldn't be too worried of traps to catch us, but there have been rumours that some of the pairs are slowed down by traps planted weeks before so that it's just an easy run back to the academy. "You think that they'll have ropes and crap in here?"

"Nah, Natalia likes to put on a show. Maybe sleeping gas."

"I bet they won't have put it anything the way we're going compared to the main path," I path as I look behind us, no cadets in sight. "We'll have the easy route."

"I hope..." Clove mutters, weaving in and out of the trees towards the academy. "If we haven't chosen right, I'll - Snow help us all."

I look towards the gargantuan log wall in front of us, somehow managing to stretch across the entire forest for as far as I can see. "You think it's around the whole thing?"

"They must have chopped down half of Seven to get this!" Clove snaps, her eyes flashing in annoyance. "New plan. We'll have to see how we can get around the wall, because we don't have anything to get us over this shit."

"Actually..." I mutter, feeling under my shirt and bringing out a long coil of rope. Clove's eyes widen as I uncoil the rope, preparing to throw it over the top. "I decided my pair might need this last night."

Clove shows the three knives that she had hidden under her sock, grinning widely at me. "I underestimated you, didn't I?"

I shrug, grabbing a rock and tying the rope around it. I throw it over the wall and pull on the rope, feeling the rock grab onto the other side of the log. "They must have known that we'd have to use ropes to get over her and made little niches for hooks and ropes to grab onto."

We both climb up the wall easily, Clove hauling the rope up and handing it to me. "No way we're leaving this behind for someone else to use."

"I like your thinking."

Clove grins and starts running again while I pause to tuck the rope back under my shirt before catching up to my partner. It's quite heavy, but I don't want to lose it in case we need it for later. We can never be too sure about our status in the Academy, especially not today.

Not today.

Clove grins as we pass the tall pair, who are currently retching their supper into the bushes. It must have been last night's supper, we didn't have breakfast, we ate last night at nine because of extra exercises, and it's four in the morning, after all. I didn't eat much last night. So far, it's working out well.

I sprint with Clove before slowing to a solid run, going through the forest and towards the hill. We move like this for hours, the sun rising and birds chirping in the branches of the tall trees as we continue towards the Academy. Our run has proven us to be among the faster groups - we haven't seen anyone in ages and we're all the more closer to Second Chance. On our last break, Clove figured that we were about three miles away from the Arena, and we're moving even faster now. The adrenaline in our veins that had vanished hours ago comes back in full steam, making me feel as if I have wings as I jump over a bush and out of the forest. We're close to home. So close.

We just have to keep on going.

The road from the top of the mountain appears next to us as we scurry down the mountainside, and I see in some surprise that people are running down the mountain road instead of through the forest. None of them are ahead of us for now - at least, none that I can tell - but the steep incline and their persistence have drawn a few to be close to us. Clove smirks as she sees Cato Tomson in the distance, his face red with perspiration. "No way that doofus is making it to Second Chance before we do."

"Didn't you sleep with him once?" I ask coyly, watching Clove blush redder than Cato is. "Oh, looks like it was more than once. Better watch out, Clove. Too much emotional connection, and you'll be cut from the roster."

"I'm over him now," she snaps, her eyes afire with anger. "And how about you? You slept with anyone yet?"

"No," I pant, letting another smirk cover my face. I might be one of the few who hasn't explored much, but I'm still waiting for the right girl. "It takes time to find one."

A cry of pain comes from above as Cato hurdles himself down the mountain, and we dodge as his flailing body tumbles down the hillside and right into a rock. Clove yelps in surprise and I rush down to the boy, his partner running after him in the distance. She's far away, though. At the pace Cato was going, it's no wonder he tripped.

I bend down to examine the teen and Clove hits me, pointing towards Second Chance. "We have to get going! We can't help him out, Peeta!"

"But… but..." I stammer as another pair passes us from the forest, looking at Cato's swelling leg. "We have to help him!"

"Helping will lose us the race." Clove turns towards the Academy, her face set in stone. "This is why everyone calls you soft."

I narrow my eyes at Clove, knowing that she's struck a nerve. It's exactly what Caleb warned me against - I have to look out for myself.

Even if it means Cato's leg will be injured for good.

"Let's go."

We take off to the Academy and Clove yells as another pair comes close, kicking up a cloud of dust that makes them stop and choke as we get all the closer. Another minute and we're through the gates, one of the victors, Brutus, clapping us on the back and grinning. "You two are second! Nice job, the both of you!"

"Satisfactory." Harris passes by us and turns to the first placers, who are sprawled on the ground with red cheeks. I look over at Clove, who's flushed by filled with excitement. "You feel tired?"

"Never."

"I'll run with you tomorrow if you want to come along."

"Sure thing."

I smile at the small, fiery girl, and move towards the barracks. As I continue walking, my arm flares up in pain, and I slap at it with a quick hand, sure that it's one of the mosquitoes that start coming into the mountains around June. A few smaller kids come and slap my hand in excitement as I move into the barracks, talking a mile a minute about how we're sure to nab spots in the top twenty-four. I wave them off and disappear into my room, passing the bed where my roommate sleeps before entering the bathroom. My arm's still hurting, and I'm curious to see how large of a bite it must be.

I face the cracked mirror in the bathroom and roll up my sleeve, prepared to see an angry red bite on my arm. But what's there makes me drop my mouth open in shock, aghast to see what's now inked onto my arm.

Because instead of a mosquito bite, it's a name written in green.

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my latest story! In case you couldn't tell from the summary, this is a Peeta/Katniss love story, in which Peeta grows up in Two. I hope you guys enjoy it, and it'd be great to have a few reviews, but if not, no harm done XD Until next chapter, TheAmazingJAJ


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